COMPENSATION CLAIM

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 145, 15 March 1939, Page 5

COMPENSATION CLAIM

Interesting Point Raised

PRE-EXISTING CONDITION

Whether a worker was entitled to compensation for an injury received in the course of his employment which may have been caused by the effects oi a previous accident was a point al issue in a claim for compensation heard yesterday by the Court of Arbitration iu Wellington.

Plaintiff was Robert Elliot. Christian, seaman, Wellington, for whom Mr. W. E. Leicester appeared, and defendant the Union Steam Ship Company, represented by Mr. C. G. White. The statement of claim set out that in the course of his duties on or about August 27, 1937. plaint iff slipped from a ladder on the It.M.S. Maunganui and injured hie left leg, which was encased in plaster lor more than six months. As a result of the accident he had been permanently incapacitated. He had not received any compensation from the company since the date of the accident, which bad been notified to the chief officer mi the day of its occurrence.

Mr. Leicester submitted that the general principle was that where, but for the accident, plaintiff would not have been incapacitated, the accident must be held to be the cause of the incapacity : that if the accident accelerated an existing disease to such an extent as to cause incapacity for work, the worker was entitled to compensation; except in eases where the worker had contracted out of the Act under section 17, the employer took the worker subject to his physical condition; if the injury accelerated a preexisting disease, il was no answer for the employer to say that the disease might at some indefinite future time have incapacitated (he worker, or that the second injury produced similar results to the first injury: whatever might be the position where a worker was compensated for a schedule injury for a first accident, the payment of an estimate for a nonschedule injury did not debar a worker from receiving an equal or greater estimate for a second accident.

The statement of defence was that if it was proved that plaintiff did slip from a ladder resulting in permanent incapacitation, such incapacity was not caused by slipping from the ladder but was due to serious injuries and diseased condition already existing in his left knee, for which he hud received compensation in December. 1934, totalling £431/2/9. and again in December, 1935. totalling £54. The defence also alleged that plaintiff signed off the articles of the ship on Auguset 27, 1937, without making any claim for sickness or injury, and no notice of the alleged accident was given to the company till March 16. 1938. The case was adjourned till Saturday after evidence had been submitted for both sides.